Auto DJ function proposal.

Sorry, originally posted this in the wrong forum... this is the right one.

Hey,

My first post here, be easy on me

I put a suggestion in to the developers of this site... just wondering what everyone else thought about it. Yea or ne...

If you are familliar with Musicmatch Jukebox's "Auto DJ" function, then you don't have to read a lot of this post. If you aren't I will explain what it is below. I think a form of this should be integrated into ME. You might want to check out the free version of Musicmatch Jukebox's AutoDJ function. It is much easier to understand.

The Auto DJ function is a great little tool for creating playlists "on the fly" using the ID3 tags of mp3's. Say I am going to take a 40 minute drive somewhere, and I don't really know who I want to listen to, but I am in the mood for some country music. I would click the "Auto DJ" button. A box comes up asking how long you want the playlist to be. So, I would choose 40 minutes. Next, it will ask for criteria for the playlist. I can choose from: Artist, Album, Year or Genre. In this case, I will choose genre. Reading from the ID3 tags of my mp3's, a listing of every genre I have in my database will come up. I will then be able to check whatever genre I want. In this case, country. I then click "finish", and viola, a 40 minute playlist of nothing but country music. The program will randomly choose files that fit your criteria until the designated time limit is reached.

I'll give you another example... say you wanted to listen to only Led Zepplin and Pink Floyd songs for some reason. Well, you would load the AutoDJ up, choose your playlist length, choose "Artist", and then check "Led Zepplin" and "Pink Floyd". BAM! It's that easy.

You can also choose a second and third criteria for your playlist. So, if you wanted to listen to strictly Rock music from 1983, you could choose "Genre" as your first criteria, and "Year" as your second criteria. This is a very flexiable, functional way of doing things.

Have you ever heard a song come on the radio that you love, but had forgotten about? I love that feeling, and I am sure there are some mp3's in your database that you neglect to listen to for the mere reasoning of forgetfulness. With this method, these mp3's have a much greater chance of being played.

It is kind of like listening to the radio... only its a station where you can skip songs, and it only plays songs that you are in the mood for.

I think others on the forum would agree this is a great way of organizing things, so let me hear your opinons.

you can do a text search for title, artist, and genre in ME.... Try playing around with the software first before you begin developing "new" ideas... Text search works fine for me... If you need the auto dj just load it yourself

Auto DJ function proposal

Yeah, you can search for mp3's in ME, and now that I look at it, it does have ID3 tag support. Therefore, it isn't as bad as I previously though. You are able to choose the genre or artist you want and set it to random, yet I think my way would still be an improved way of doing things.

The first problem I see with ME's current method is that every time you load some songs up, it starts with the first track. There is no way, that I see, to randomize the first track, which would be a nice feature. My way also allows you to set a stricter criteria of what you want to hear. If I am in the mood for country music, but didn't feel like hearing Shania Twain that particular day, I would choose "Genre - Country" as my first criteria, and then "Artist - Select all" and then simply uncheck "Shania Twain". I know you can just go with the current method, and skip a song that you don't want to hear when one comes on... but I think it is much easier to filter it out in the first place.

As for me not having a "new" idea... the idea might not be new, but it does suggest improvements to the current method, making the software more flexiable. Take it or leave it, that is why it is a suggestion. Thanks for your response. Does anybody have any other thoughts?

got to remember tho - most progs that are commercially available use a windows or user friendly GUI that can involve mouse, keyboard, touch etc..

ME caters for a much stricter range of inputs, for example maybe only touch, and remote control,. hence no keyboard (unless on-screen)

gui and front ends need to be as simple as possible as they may well be operated while driving. ME does an excellant job of accomodating this factor, and while i do think that your idea may be worth consideration by the powers that be, perhaps a little more thought into "how" its going to happen to save the developers the headache.

as above thetext search etc may be the best way to implement what you have thought of given the strict factors and limitations ME must operate under...

does leaving "shuffle" on still make it play first track only?? if so add it as a bug!

In regards to playing the first song with shuffle on, MediaEngine queues whatever track you have selected when you initiate play of a playlist. It doesn't matter if shuffle is on or off. This is by design. Solution: start the playlist with whatever track is selected and then hit the (>>) button after playback has started to advance to a random track.

In regards to the feature request, I think this is a neat idea even though the words 'Musicmatch Jukebox' make me wretch. I'll keep it in mind the next time we're working on the media browser - with the database it probably wouldn't be too difficult to implement other than the time constraints. Currently we do not read or store individual track time so that might be some new ground for us.

Yeah, the words MusicMatch make me wretch too... the ONLY reason I like it is because of this feature.

First off, thank you for all of your replys. I do realize it is hard to have that much control over a playlist while you are driving down the road, but it would be nice to at least have the option there... it will make the software stronger and more attractive to people.

As for ME playing the first song on shuffle mode, no this is not a software bug, yet it does "bug" me (That was bad ). I know I can just click on the (>>) button, and it will start playing a random track. What bothers me about it is, I am either never going to, or always going to hear whatever song happens to be first in my library depending on if I skip it all the time or not. So, I have a choice of playing out the first song in my library, or never hearing it at all!!! That is all that bothers me about that. If there a way, perhaps, to open a genre or artist and have an option of not selecting a track, just choosing "play all"?

Thank you for considering my idea. I don't think it would be too difficult to implement either. One thing I would like is an option to filter by the "Year" ID3 tag. As for reading and storing track times, that might not even have to be done. You could have ME pick out EVERY song that meets the selected criteria, put all of them onto a playlist, and just have them on shuffle mode. Considering track one doesn't always play first... AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!